OT reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-6 (especially v.6)
SERMON – Deeper and deeper; (the level of our commitment).
Chapters 40 to 48 of the Book of Ezekiel contain accounts of visions
God showed the Prophet in the 25th year
of Israel's exile in Babylon.
Some of the visions were to remind the Jews of what they had lost,
to chastise them;
others were visions of good things to come,
to encourage them.
The vision in 47: 1-6 can be taken as a challenge,
where God wants to ascertain the depth of Israel's commitment to Him.
Try to picture the scene: Ezekiel stands in water up to his ankles.
Then he goes deeper into the water until the water was up to his knees.
Then he goes further out until the water was up to his waist.
Then in deeper until the water was deep enough to swim in.
Water is usually associated with cleansing, purification, forgiveness;
but here I think it is the DEPTH of the water that is significant
What was the meaning of Ezekiel's vision?
What was God trying to tell him?
What was God trying to Israel?
What is God trying to tell us?
Jesus went in deep for us –
He gave up his life so that WE could have salvation,
but before He died, Jesus said in Matthew 24
that many would "fall away" before his 2nd coming,
and people have been "falling away" since the beginning of time,
in the sense of only being prepared to follow God when the going is easy,
but not when the going gets rough, as symbolised by "deep water".
Adam and Eve had absolutely everything going for them in the Garden of Eden
and there was only one Law or rule, but they broke it.
They were not "deep water" people.
In Genesis 6, 7 and 8 we read about Noah and his family
being saved from the worldwide flood because Noah was "a righteous man".
He was prepared to "go in deep", building a boat for God in the middle of the desert.
But in Genesis 9 we read how Noah got drunk and lay about naked,
to the embarrassment of his sons,
so his "depth" was not permanent.
Lot was prepared to "go in deep",
as we can see by his unwillingness to compromise with the homosexual rapists - Sodomisers - in Sodom and Gomorrah
and because of this he was saved from death
when God hurled fire and brimstone down
because of the inhabitants' sinfulness,
but Lot's wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
She was not prepared to go as deeply into the water of Godly commitment
as her husband.
Jonah was used by God as a prophet, but he disobeyed God, which led to him being thrown in the ocean, and ending up in the belly of a whale.
He did not want to go in deep, but God made sure he did - literally.
There have been very few people like Joseph,
who went to prison in Egypt rather than sin against God and his employer
by sleeping with his employer's wife.
That's deep.
There have been very few people like Daniel,
who was prepared to die in a den of lions, rather than stop praying to Almighty God.
That's very deep.
God wanted Israel to go on a journey with Him,
not just a physical one which would take them out of slavery in Egypt,
through the waters of the Reed Sea,
and into the Promised Land,
but one that would see them becoming different from every other race and tribe
because their journey would be a spiritual one.
They would cease to be ordinary tribes people of the Middle East
and would become a holy people, a royal priesthood, Lights to the Gentiles,
IF they were prepared to go deep, not deep into physical H2O,
but deep into commitment with God.
Whereas the OT is about God's Covenant with one tribe
which God called to "go deeper" with Him,
the NT sees the Covenant relationship widened to include all mankind,
but God's will is frustrated by those who are frightened to get their feet wet
and unwilling to commit themselves 100%.
Simon Peter, Cephas the fisherman, left his family and business to follow Jesus
and become a disciple.
He was in so deep that in Matthew 16:18 Jesus appointed Peter
the leader of the apostles,
but 3 years later he denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed
because he did not want to suffer the same fate as his Master.
The depth was too much for him at that time,
but later he repented of his cowardice and was forgiven,
and he was given a 2nd chance.
Then he showed how deep he was in to God
and he died for the Gospel.
Paul was deep into legalism and Pharasaism
until he met Jesus on the Damascus Road,
and after his conversion he was deep into the Gospel,
establishing churches throughout Greece and Asia Minor,
until his death, probably ordered by Nero
who was deep into sin.
Annas and Sapphira, two early Christians, were willing to give their small change
for the work of the early Church;
they were only in up to their ankles, or maybe their knees.
We know this because Acts records how they were unwilling to give the church
proceeds from the sale of some land,
unlike the poor widow who only gave two farthings,
but that was all she had in the world.
She was deep into the ways of God.
Annas and Sapphira did not mind getting their feet wet, but that was all;
the widow was prepared to go into the water as deep as God wanted.
Many of the early Christians lost their homes and even their lives
because of the Gospel and their commitment to Jesus,
dying in front of thousands of baying Romans in the Arena.
That's deep.
Then there were all the early Saints, who left homes, comforts and families,
to be hermits or missionaries, such as:
Columba, Kentigern, Bridget (or Bride), Francis of Assisi, Patrick.
They were all prepared to go into water which went over their heads.
The first Protestants were prepared to go in deep in the 15th and 16th centuries.
So much that they were prepared to die for the truth of the Gospel
at the hands of the Popes and Jesuits who were corrupt
and only interested in feathering their own nests.
People like John Wycliffe, who was burned at the stake, and William Tynedale,
John Huss and Miles Coverdale.
In the 17th century John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim's Progress,
was prepared to go to prison for his beliefs
rather than let the king of England dictate how people should worship.
That's deep.
In the 19th century, Father Damien, a Belgian priest,
worked with, and lived alongside, lepers
on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.
His bishop told him not to get too involved with them,
but Fr Damien went in as deeply as he felt God wanted him to go
in order to meet their needs
and he worked with lepers until he caught the disease himself
and died in a leper's hut.
Dr Barnardo went in deep, by giving up a lucrative career as a medical doctor,
to help orphans living on the streets of London.
In the late 19th century William Booth preached in pubs and music halls,
and was criticised by "good Methodist Christians",
and abused and physically attacked by drunks,
one of whom threw a dead cat in his face.
That's deep.
Corrie Ten Boom, a middle class Dutch Protestant girl
helped to hide Jews in a "secret room" behind a false wall in her house in Haarlem during WW2.
Her father, and her sister Betsie, were beaten to death by the Nazis,
and Corrie was prepared for this, if it was God's will.
That’s deep.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Protestant Pastor, loved his country,
but hated Hitler, and was involved in a bomb plot to assassinate Hitler
in an attempt to bring about an end the war.
In return for going in so deep, he was hanged in Flossenberg Concentration Camp
in 1945.
Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian Protestant Pastor,
was tortured by Communist police for preaching the Gospel in the 1960's and 1970's.
He went in so deep that his teeth, finger nails and toe nails were all pulled out
with pliers, and 47 cigarette burns on his body.
In the 1970's and 1980's Mother Teresa, a little Yugoslavian nun,
worked with lepers and abandoned babies,
and poor people left to die in the gutters of Calcutta.
At first the Pope had not wanted her to go in so deep;
her original job was to teach Geography to the daughters of rich Indians,
but she felt God wanted more from her.
She wanted to be committed up to her neck.
I pray she was deep into Jesus,
not only good works, which although good, cannot save.
Today, Christians in Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea,
and many other places, are being persecuted for Christ.
If they were prepared to keep their heads down and their mouths closed,
in other words, not going in too deep, they would be tolerated and left alone,
but they got the message of Ezekiel 47 and Luke 9,
and are in the waters of commitment very deeply.
It is not for me to judge or in any way point the finger,
but according to Revelation 20 one day we shall all stand before God,
seated on a great white throne,
and we will receive His judgment – not for salvation – that’s a free gift,
bought for us by the blood of His only begotten Son,
but for the nature or value of the reward we shall receive from God,
so before that happens,#
perhaps we should all ask ourselves:
How deep am I in?
How committed am I?
To God?
To His church?
To this church?
With my time?
With my talents?
With my money?
With my mouth?
With my car?
With my home?
With everything I have?
We are not to get into a legalistic frame of mind,
and end up worse than the Pharisees of Jesus’ time,
and the Scripture passage only calls us to think about and pray about
how deep WE are,
not how deep or how shallow someone else is,
but with regard to reading our Bibles,
feeding on the Word of God,
is 5 minutes a day deep enough?
Half an hour?
With regard to praying for each other, for our families,
for revival inn our nation, for church growth,
is 5 minutes a day deep enough?
Half an hour?
With regard to witnessing?
With regard to giving, our time and talents as well as our money?
With regard to church attendance?
How deep is God into us?
How deep did Jesus go for us?
God has given us a new year (2011);
I pray that by the end of it
we shall all be deeper
in our devotion to God,
our service for His kingdom,
and the life and witness of this church,
and I pray that by the end of this year
we will all be deeper into the grace,
and mercy and peace,
and blessings of God.
, Amen.
